Shoe-fastening



(No Model.)

J. B. BERTRAND.

SHOE FASTENING.

No. 431,737. Patented July 8, 1890.

MewchsephEliBerh'and,

flllorney UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH ELI BERTRAND, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

SHOE-FASTENING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 431,737, dated July 8, 1890.

Application filed July 5, 1889. Serial No. 316,569. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOSEPH ELI BERTRAND, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Boot or Shoe Lacing Devices, of which the following, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

My invention relates to lacing devices for boots or shoes; and it consists in certain novel features of construction, arrangement, and combination of parts, which will be readily understood by reference to the description of the drawings, and to the claims to be hereinafter given.

Figure l of the drawings is a perspective view of a boot, illustrating my invention,'the

same being only partly laced. Fig. 2 .is a

similar view of the front portion of a bootleg laced. Fig. 3 is a partial transverse section of the boot-leg on the oblique line as a: on Fig. 1, wit-h the two parts of the leg partly open or separated. Fig. 4 is a transverse section through the button-flap and showing the preferred form of eye to receive the lacing-cord, and Fig. 5 is a similar section showing a modified form of cord-receiving eye.

The object of my invention is to combine the advantages of a lace-fastening for boots or shoes with the neater appearance of a button-fastening, and at the same time render the fastening less liable to become inoperative or defective than the button-fastenings now in general use, and much easier manipulated than the lacing devices now in use. To attain these desirable ends, the boot or shoe is cut and made up in the same style as the button boots or shoes in common use that is, with the slit or opening to facilitate the admission of the foot at one side of the center of the front of the instep, with that portion a seamed to the center of the instep overlapping the portion 1) upon the'other side of the opening; but instead of forming a series of button-holes in the outer flap a and securing a corresponding number of buttons to the part 1) upon the other side of the slit or opening, as in button boots or shoes, I secure to said outer flap a series of buttons 0 by passing their eyes through small holes in said flap, so that a small ring (1 may be inserted in each eye upon the inside of the flap a, as shown in Fig. 4, through which rings 61 the lacing-cord e is run, one end of said cord being firmly secured to the inside of said flap so arranged that each stud will be opposite the center of the space between two of the buttons 0 and all beneath and hid by the flap a when the boot is laced, as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 2. These lace hooks or studs are firmly riveted to the part b in a wellknown manner. The buttons 0, with the rings cl attached, I propose to attach to the flap a by punching round holes through the material-of a diameter considerable less than the diameter of the ring cl and forcing said rings and the eyes of the buttons through said holes.

The operation of my invention is as follows: The boot being placed on the foot, the wearer takes the free end of the cord e in one hand, and, pulling lightly upward thereon, seizes the lacing-cord e between the thumb and finger of the other hand at a point between the rings of the lower two buttons, and pulling out a bite of said cord places it in engagement with the neck of the lower hook or stud f, and repeats this operation by seizing the cord between each pair of button eyes or rings and placing it in engagement with the neck of a stud until it is in engagement with all of the studs, when the cord is drawn taut, and after being passed around or partially around the ankle or leg is secured by causing one of the knots e to engage with a hook g, which may be of any well-known construction, and is or may be secured to the boot-leg at any desired point and in any well-known manner.

The advantages of this invention are that it is equally as elastic and adjustable to the size of the leg or ankle of the wearer as the ordinary lace-boot, a great advantage over the ordinary button-boot in cases where the leg or ankle of the wearer is liable to swell, while at the same time it has the neat and finished appearance of a button-boot without the objectionable features of ordinary buttonbootssuch as the frequent pulling off of a button, tearing out of button-holes, and the hard Work of buttoning said boots.

I am aware of the lacing device patented to W. Braemer, March 16, 1880, No. 225,477, in which the lacing-cord is run through two sets of eyes or loops attached to opposite sides of the slit in the boot, and I do not claim anything shown and described therein; but

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

The combination, with a boot or shoe having a slit or opening to be secured together, and provided with a flap secured at one side of said opening andoverlapping the material at the other side of said slit, of a series of lacing hooks or studs set in the inner or over lapped portion of the material at one side of said slit and beneath the overlapping flap, a series of buttons secured to the overlapping flap with the button-heads outside and their eyes projecting through the material, a series of rings inserted in the eyes of said buttons, and a lacing-cord secured at one end to the upper at or near the lower end of said opening or slit and passing upward through all of the rings connected to the button-eyes, and adapted to be passed over a hook or stud between each pair of rings, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, on this 2d day of July, A. D. 1889.

JOSEPH ELI BERTRAND. WVitnesses:

N. O. LoMBARD, WVALTER E. LOM'BARD. 

